


In A Place I did Not See

by Symmet



Series: Daisy Chains [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Everyones not happy, F/M, Solas is just chillin, missing inquisitor!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-21
Updated: 2015-10-21
Packaged: 2018-04-27 10:03:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5044081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Symmet/pseuds/Symmet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Solas had meant to never see any of them again. He supposes that at least it was only some fluke they found him. Searching for <i>her</i> no less. </p><p>The only one who is not worried is Cole.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In A Place I did Not See

**Author's Note:**

> EDIT: I made cover art!
> 
>  
> 
> [](http://s1295.photobucket.com/user/arlanengin/media/Daisy%20chains%202_zpsx9tgd5an.png.html)

Solas is quietly tending a fire when it happens. The dark, smoky night in the woodlands was no strange place to him, in fact the sounds of the forest more put him at ease than other places might. The hum of crickets, the quiet wing beats of passing bird and bat, the short, sleeping snuffle of nugs - no, none of this was unfamiliar, and none of it moved him beyond some simple restlessness.

Which he could use. Restlessness was something he could handle - something he could _be_. It gave him more motivation to work, to not squander the time he had left.

How little time he had left.

Not to mention how his _heart_ -

Then a brittle branch broke, and into the clearing thundered Cassandra. It was not all her fault, Solas supposed - her heavy armor was built for anything _but_ subtly.

She had not come for him, it seems, for when she looked towards the small campfire and caught Solas' eye, her expression of annoyance turned to one of shock and then, more familiar on her features, outrage.

“ _You!_ " She all but spat, in that especially eloquent and bold manner - nay charm - all her own, "I should have you executed! No, I should kill you myself!" Though her hand was on her sheathed sword she made no motion to pull it out - yet.

She marched forward, but when she offered nothing on his apparent status of godhood, Solas could only find great relief that she seemed to have no idea of his secret. She had been discreet, then. Or perhaps, on second thought, Cassandra would have little trouble threatening a god in any case, he supposes.

"What did you do to her? I should have you -" before her next threat can be known - thrown in the dungeons, Solas expects - a more graceful body enters the clearing, pushing aside a groaning branch heavy with leaves that rustle in displeasure with a careful palm.

Solas blinked at the unexpected but nevertheless not wholly unwelcome dwarf.

"Hello, Varric," he says by way of greeting, "Have you by chance lost a Seeker? I happen to have found a perfectly disagreeable one. She seems intent on threatening me." He motioned towards the further infuriated Cassandra, but there was little in him that cared at that very moment.

If Varric was surprised he hid it well. "Cass, there you are, you know how antsy your beloved Serah Pickles gets when you run off like that."

Cassandra's ire now mostly distracted - an ability Varric alone had seemed to perfect - she began cursing out the both of them, and then men in general.

Varric only laughed, " _Go on_ , Seeker. Cole is completely unsupervised right now. You want that? I think he's great and _I_ don't think that's wise." The dwarf tried a different tactic when her threats only got louder, motioning towards Solas, "Oh, look at him, miserably camped out in the middle of a hot forest! He's not doing anything. You go secure our horses and the spirit before he decides they need to rescue some raccoons or tie all of the stirrups together - _again_."

Cassandra stared at him for long, vicious moment before heaving a furious sigh and stomping past him, still muttering curses under her breath.

When the dwarf was sure she'd gone out of earshot he turned again to face Solas, looking unsettled.

"I had kinda hoped you were dead." He said by way of greeting.

Solas blinked, "Do I have that effect on people now?"

Varric half chuckled as he set Bianca down and took a seat across him by the fire, but it was a dry sound, without his usual humor. "Well, it was easier to think you died rather than left her behind... like that."

Solas stiffened, "Is she here?" He his hand moved to his staff out of instinct ready to flee, realizing too late that he'd given something away.

Varric eyed the staff, gaze flicking to Solas' face calculatingly, "Would be nice, but I doubt it." Then he leaned back, "She doesn't travel with the pack anymore, bit of a lone wolf now."

Solas narrowed his eyes but Varric had turned to the inner pockets of his coat to pull out a flask, no doubt filled with some form of distasteful alcohol. He took a swig and then offered it to Solas, "It's the good stuff. Not tea, I swear." He said with a slight grin.

Solas shook his head slowly, hand retreating to the folds of his cloak, " So what brings you to this part of the map, Varric?"

"The opposite of you, seems like." Varric said. When Solas quirked an eyebrow, he added, "We're, uh, actually _looking_ for our favorite Lavellan. Haven't seen her, have you? She's been out for a month, now, so -"

Before Solas could open his mouth to reply - or question, more likely - a dispassioned voice rose from the shadows, "Fetching, fumbling, fastidious and frowning, but not outside. You won't find her, I told you already. And he hasn't seen her. No one has."

Cole stepped silently from the underbrush, the only one in their party who seemed to have truly mastered the concept of silence, it seemed.

He rolled a flower stem between his fingers, then tilted his head at Solas, "She told you that already, that you'll never see her again. Warning, threat, promise."

Solas felt his blood chill, "Cole, what does -"

But he was cut off, "She's gone, gone, didn't you hear? The Dread Wolf ate her heart, tried to give back what can't be undone, there's no one left in the tower to call that name."

Varric, twisted around to look at Cole, missing Solas' reaction to those words.

Cole brought what looked to be a common weed to his nose and smiled almost mischeviously at Solas from behind it.

"Cole, buddy, there you are! Does Cass know you're up here? You didn't let the horses loose again, did you? Because then she gets pissy, you poof out, and then she all but chews my poor ears off on the way home - the long _walk_ home."

Cole's smile did not falter until his gaze moved to Varric, slipping off again, "No, Buttercup, Serah Pickles, and Vincenttiea are fine, thank you for asking. Buttercup is angry that you didn't feed her a carrot this morning, though, so she might be grumpy tomorrow."

"What did you mean?" Solas ventured as the dwarf mumbled _'shit'_ to himself under his breath, afraid of what Cole might reveal but too invested to ignore his words - _warning, threat, promise_ , he had said.

To whom? To vhenan?

Cole fit the daisy in his mouth, rolling it between his tongue and teeth, beginning in a sing song voice "There's no one left with that name, she told you and I heard it, she left the same day you did, there's only a hollow body behind, the corpse on a lonely little battlefield."

Varric stood up suddenly, "Hey, I think your poetry is great and all, but let's refrain from freaky stuff about Chipper, okay?" He seemed worried, unsettled by the talk of his friend's state of being - or, as Cole put it, perhaps lack thereof. Cole hummed noncommittedly.

"You gonna tell us where she is or no?" Varric said, "Should we just hold fort or -"

"The Inquisitor is going to be back there soon," Cole said, sucking on the flower "At the fort in a fort night."

"Aha, _well_ this has been a nearly colossal waste of time! Come on, let's go tell Cass the unpleasant news, by which I mean you disappear and she threatens to skewer me." Varric said with a heavy sigh, picking up Bianca.

Solas watched him get up, dusting off his vest.

"Almost nice seeing you again, Chuckles, except for the wolf-eating-hearts bit. Toodles for now, I guess." Varric gave a slight wave as he motioned for Cole to follow, exiting through the same trampled path Cassandra had left behind.

And then it was just the sounds if the forest again - but now it felt too quiet, as if all the birds and beasts knew a spirit was near, that a god was awake, and they held their breath for the outcome.

Cole turned to look at Solas across the clearing, a half smile on his serene face. Solas had never predicted he and the spirit being opposed, but that was what it felt like at the moment - some strange clash of wills.

He tried to tap down the small, frayed pride that yet again she had surprised him.

Cole tilted his head as he pulled out that thought, "Doesn't Harel mean opposition? She told me about that - before you ate her heart."

At his side, Solas' fist curled, his expression turning stormy, but Varric's voice rose up, distant yet commanding, "Hey, Hat Boy! Come tell Cass here what you told me! Minus the eerie wolf-y bits! The other bits about going home."

"Home?" Cole grinned suddenly, lips drawn over his teeth in a wolf-like expression, then spat out the flower into the dirt, wiping his mouth on his sleeve.

"Bitter." Cole mumbled as he headed in the direction of Varric's voice, fading into the shadows.

Silence settled, but for the crackling of the fire.

Solas glanced over to where Cole had stood.

In the dirt lay a mangled remains of a plant.

He squinted and realized what it was.

A common daisy.


End file.
